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We are at your service. PREPARE THE WORD was developed years ago as a resource to help preachers prepare homilies that hit home. That remains our fundamental focus. But we have expanded our approach with the ultimate goal of helping you nourish and strengthen the faith of the people you serve. Not only are we committed to helping you achieve consistently excellent homilies, but we want to make sure that you and your parish ministers have content used to preach, teach, and distribute to the members you serve that is engaging, enlightening, and true to the teachings of the church and the word. We are intimately familiar with the work that you do and the expectations that come with it. We know what inspires you and what challenges you. And because of this, we take our mission very seriously—we see our work as a very real extension of your ministry. We're grateful to be partners in ministry.

Evangelization faith-formation preaching spreading the Word
Exploring the word

08 Mar 2015 - Third Sunday of Lent, Cycle B

In the territory of Lent, many of us take on practices aimed at improving our character. We exercise greater generosity and pray more. We reflect daily on scripture or contemplate our own moral landscape. We take up reading meant to edify or clarify. We clear a place for the Holy Spirit to plant some seeds. But along the path of transformation, taking on practices is only half the task. It’s also necessary to dismiss old habits that led us to stagnation, confusion, or rationalization. Some of us are gentle about this, plotting baby steps toward spiritual perfection the way Thérèse of Lisieux recommends. This works very well in cloisters and among saints-in-progress, I’m sure. Others of us are hardcore Lenten militants, preferring to cease-and-desist failed behaviors wielding a disciplinary whip and chair. I admit I tend toward this personality, having been raised in an authoritarian home. My inner czarina makes me ruthless when installing an updated version of expectations for my life. When Jesus occupies the Temple area with the magnificent display of authority we hear described today, he seems to be employing the latter method. It’s an episode revealing an aspect of Jesus that rarely gets celebrated: the nostrils flaring, honking mad, busting-things-up Messiah. We don’t display this image much in church. It’s not sweet or patient in suffering. We like the Jesus who welcomes children into his arms and feeds multitudes. The Jesus who breaks things and yells at people is a little intimidating, a face of his Father we’d rather not consider. But this face of the Divine should be completely familiar. Moses encountered a deeply invested God who revealed concern for human beings with an efficient set of do’s and don’ts meant to improve our community and lead to our happiness. The God of Moses loves and shows mercy extravagantly, and also expects a fidelity in kind from the beneficiaries of that love. A covenant is a serious thing, not unlike a marriage. Either you’re all in or you’re out. You can’t be vaguely married. When Jesus enters the Temple area consumed by zeal, the effect is rather terrifying to the participants, and to onlookers like us. Here’s one teaching that’s crystal clear: Jesus claims the authority of the Temple in his very body. There are no baby steps that can be taken to this awareness. It’s a radical declaration, chilling in its implications for those who seek divine encounters by any other means. Time to choose allegiances, and no fence-straddlers welcome. By no means does this imply we should abandon the small, gradual practices that burnish our spirits and mildly improve our character along the Lenten journey. But sometimes, the radical and cataclysmic U-turn may be the only route to the truth.

Authors Alice Camille

temple Lent Transformation

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Homily stories

01 Mar 2015 - Second Sunday of Lent, Cycle B

Sudden events transform people all the time. But it isn’t often that the event happens to be the ultimate metaphor for an act of God: a lightning strike. South African professional golfer Retief Goosen admits he was a bad-tempered boy who used to smash his clubs in frustration—sometimes several per round. According to his mother, he was extremely outgoing in his youth—until he was 15 and he was struck by lightning while playing golf. The bolt knocked him unconscious and burnt all his clothes off his body; his shoes disintegrated and his watch melted to his wrist. Goosen spent two months recovering in the hospital, and after he emerged, his feisty emotions fizzled and his gregariousness gave way to calm. Now known for his cool reserve under pressure, Goosen’s nickname is “Iceman.” Goosen credits his two years in the army and his work with a sports psychologist for honing his game-winning self-control. But along with his mother, his father also believes otherwise—he is sure his son’s survival meant the boy was destined by God for more remarkable things. Whether it’s divine intervention or simply discipline, the 45-year-old world-ranked golfer has won the U.S. Open Championship twice.

Authors Jennifer Tomshack

Transformation Destiny

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Homily themes

09 Jun 2013 - Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

God changes things. God transforms—the faith of a pagan woman to one who recognizes a prophet of God; a persecutor to a great missionary; accusations to praise; mourning into joy; the dead to the living. God rescues and provides: an only son to a mother—more than once. God works through prophets and apostles, even when their authenticity is questioned. God crosses boundaries to save all: a believer in Baal; an enemy of the church; the Gentiles. When the “purity” of a people stands in the way of new life, God’s Son risks “impurity” to touch the dead of those same people; a man who was a “zealot to his ancestral traditions” shows equal zeal in going beyond them.

Salvation Purity Transformation

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